The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 to Japanese Patent Application No.2000-329351, filed Oct. 27, 2000, entitled xe2x80x9cGLASS RUN CHANNEL AND WINDOWPANE ASSEMBLYxe2x80x9d and Japanese Patent Application No.2001-239684, filed Aug. 7, 2001, entitled xe2x80x9cGLASS RUN CHANNEL AND GLASS RUN CHANNEL ASSEMBLYxe2x80x9d. The contents of these applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a glass run channel that can be mounted on a window frame of a variety of vehicles or the like and the glass run channel assembly using the same.
2. Discussion of the Background
A window assembly in an automobile is generally composed of a window frame, a glass run channel mounted on the window frame, and a windowpane configured so as to move inside the glass run channel, for example, in a vertical direction or a horizontal direction, and slide inside the glass run channel.
In the window frame, a portion between an end of a windowpane and a glass run channel is sealed, and leakage such as rain water at a gap between the windowpane and the window frame is prevented. Further, an occurrence of a windage noise is prevented between the windowpane and the window frame during vehicle running.
In recent years, in the window assembly, opening and closing of the windowpane has been achieved by an electrically driven elevation device.
In the case where the windowpane is closed by means of the elevation device, an edge of the windowpane (where the edge of the windowpane denotes the end of the windowpane, and in particular, denotes the end in a movement direction when the windowpane is slid) stops in abutment with the glass run channel mounted on the window frame. Due to this stoppage, a shock noise occurs, which may make a driver and attendant feel discomfort.
Hereinafter, this stoppage noise is referred to as a bottoming noise.
The bottoming noise does not occur at a particularly determined site. The shape of the edge of the windowpane and the shape of the glass run channel are not unified due to a variety of factors during manufacture. Thus, a bottoming noise occurs at a first portion in abutment with the glass run channel at the edge of the moving windowpane.
Conventionally, some configurations have been proposed in order to prevent an occurrence of this bottoming noise. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 9-104236 proposed a structure in which an internal lip extending from a center base of a glass run channel is provided such that a bottoming noise is reduced.
In addition, in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. 5-86641, a base portion of a glass run channel is configured in two steps and in a hollow shape, thereby a bottoming noise is reduced with this structure.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 7-69075, there is proposed a configuration in which a lip consisting of polyethylene with a low frictional coefficient is provided on the inner depth face of the glass run channel such that a bottoming noise is reduced.
However, with any of these structures, an effect of reducing a bottoming noise could not be satisfactorily obtained.
The present invention provides a glass run channel and a glass run channel assembly in which a bottoming noise is hardly generated.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a glass run channel mounted on a window frame of a vehicle body and configured so that a windowpane slides inside thereof. The glass run channel includes a main body portion having a pair of side wall portions and a base bottom portion connecting the pair of side wall portions. Seal lips are formed to protrude from an opening edge side of the pair of side wall portions to the base bottom portion, and a shock absorption member is provided in a direction crossing a movement direction of the windowpane with a gap provided between the base bottom portion and the shock absorption member. Low-frictional material layers are provided integrally at least at a contact face of the shock absorption member which is configured to come into contact with an edge of the windowpane, and at a back face of the contact face and/or a bottom face of the base bottom portion opposite the back face.
The present invention advantageously provides a glass run channel that has a shock absorption member, which is provided in a direction crossing the movement direction of the windowpane with a gap provided between a base bottom portion and the shock absorption member. The invention further advantageously provides a low-friction material layer that is integrally provided at least at a contact face of the shock absorption member, which comes into contact with an edge of the windowpane, and at a back face of the contact face and/or a bottom face of the base bottom portion opposite the back face.
The movement direction of the windowpane denotes a windowpane closing direction when the windowpane is closed.
For example, in the case of a window provided at a front door or the like of a normal automobile (refer to FIG. 5), a windowpane is expelled from the inside of the door, and abuts against the upper portion of the window frame, and the window is closed by means of the windowpane. In this case, the movement direction of the windowpane is an upward direction.
Further, in the case of a window provided on a side face of a bus or the like (refer to FIG. 15), the windowpane generally has a forward/rearward direction of the vehicle, that is, a forward or rearward movement direction.
In the present invention, a low-friction material layer can be provided only at a back face of a shock absorption member (refer to FIG. 1) or only at a bottom face of a base bottom portion (refer to FIG. 10). Further, such a low-friction material layer can be provided at both of the back face of the shock absorption member and the bottom face of the base bottom portion (refer to FIG. 14).
The low-friction material layer can be provided at other places like both side wall portions and seal lips of the glass run channel (refer to FIG. 1 or the like).
In a glass run channel according to the present invention, an edge of a windowpane comes in contact with a shock absorption member provided at a base bottom portion, whereby the shock absorption member is elastically deformed and stops in contact with the base bottom portion while absorbing the shock energy.
Therefore, when the base bottom portion of the glass run channel and the shock absorption member collide with each other, the moving velocity of the edge of the windowpane is gradually reduced, and the movement stops. The collision energy is reduced, and thus, the bottoming noise is reduced.
A low-friction material layer is provided at a back face of the shock absorption member and/or at a bottom face of a base bottom portion, whereby a friction between the shock absorption member and the bottom face of the base bottom portion is small. Thus a displacement of the shock absorption member is not prevented. Hence, when the base bottom portion of the glass run channel and the shock absorption member collide with each other, the shock absorption member can be easily displaced, and absorption of collision energy is reliably performed.
As has been described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a glass run channel in which an occurrence of a bottoming noise is prevented.
In addition, a low-friction material layer exists on at least one of the shock absorption member and the bottom face of the base bottom portion, whereby friction is small when they come into contact with each other, or separate. Thus a noise between them is hard to be generated. In this manner, when a windowpane is opened, the shock absorption member is separated from the bottom face of the base bottom portion. However, an adhering of them is prevented at this time, and thus, an occurrence of a stick slip noise can be prevented.
It is preferable that the shock absorption member is made of a extrusion molding of a thermoplastic elastomer. The thermoplastic elastomer maintains proper elasticity, and thus, an effect of the present invention can be better attained. In addition, when such an elastomer is disposed, even if it is burned, no harmful gas occurs, which is safe.
As the thermoplastic elastomer, for example, there can be employed a Milastomer available from Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. and Santoprene available from AES Japan Ltd. or the like.
Next, according to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a glass run channel assembly mounted on a window frame of a vehicle body. The glass run channel assembly has an abutment glass run channel mounted to a side against which a windowpane abuts after the windowpane has moved. The glass run channel assembly also has side part glass run channels mounted substantially parallel to a movement direction of the windowpane at both sides of the abutment glass run channel. The abutment glass run channel and the side part glass run channels are assembled integrally with each other, each having a main body portion having a pair of side wall portions and a base bottom portion connecting the pair of side wall portions. The abutment glass run channel and side part glass run channels also have seal lips formed to be protruded from an opening edge side of the pair of side wall portions toward the base bottom portion, wherein the abutment glass run channel has a shock absorption member provided in a direction crossing a movement direction of the windowpane with a gap provided between the shock absorption member and the base bottom portion. Low-friction material layers are provided integrally at a contact face of the shock absorption member that is configured to come into contact with an edge of the windowpane, and at least one of a back face of the contact face and a bottom face of the base bottom portion opposite the back face. The side part glass run channels do not have a shock absorption member. The abutment glass run channel and side part glass run channel are connected to each other at their terminals by means of an additional connection member while maintaining a predetermined angle in a nonlinear manner.
In a glass run channel assembly according to the present invention, an edge of a windowpane comes into contact with a shock absorption member provided at a base bottom portion, and the shock absorption member is elastically deformed, and stops while absorbing shock energy.
Thus, when the base bottom portion and shock absorption member of the glass run channel assembly collide with each other, the movement velocity of the edge of the windowpane is gradually reduced, and the movement stops. The collision energy is gradually absorbed by the shock absorption member, and the moving velocity is reduced. Thus, a bottoming noise is reduced as well.
In addition, a low-friction material layer is provided at the back face of the shock absorption member and/or on the bottom face of the base bottom portion, a friction between the shock absorption member and the bottom face of the base bottom portion is reduced, and the shock absorption member is not prevented from being elastically deformed. Therefore, when the base bottom portion and shock absorption member of the glass run channel collide with each other, the shock absorption member can be easily displaced, and collision energy absorption is reliably carried out.
On the other hand, although the side part glass run channel is connected with the abutment glass run channel, the shock absorption member does not exist on the side part glass run channel. Thus, when the windowpane moves, it does not come into contact with the shock absorption member. Thus, there is an advantageous effect that a slide resistance is not increased when the windowpane moves.
As has been described above, according to the present invention, there can be provided a glass run channel assembly that prevents an occurrence of a bottoming noise without increasing the slide resistance. The detail is similar to the above description of the glass run channel.